1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle door which is opened and closed with a handle device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Pub. No. 2001-354035 discloses an example of a handle device provided on a vehicle, for example, an automobile. This prior art comprises a grip handle being a handle member that releases the lock of a door lock mechanism, and a case being a base member that rotatably supports the grip handle.
Generally, vehicle doors comprise a door panel member, a door lock mechanism, and a handle device as described above and the like. The door panel member includes an outer panel facing the outside of the vehicle, and an inner panel facing the inside of the vehicle. The base member of the handle device is fixed on the internal surface of the outer panel, and contained inside the door panel member. In most vehicle doors having such a structure, a concave portion for easy insertion of the hand into the handle device is formed in a portion of the outer panel to which the handle portion is attached. Such a structure of the vehicle door is adopted in many types of vehicles.
However, in the above structure of the vehicle door, there is the problem that it is required to increase the distance between the inner panel and the outer panel enough to contain the base member inside he door panel member, and consequently the thickness of the door panel member is increased. Further, although only containing the base member does not much increase the thickness of the door panel member, it is necessary to also provide the concave portion in the portion to which the base member is attached. Therefore, increase in thickness of the door panel member is inevitable. The base member is required to retain a predetermined strength to support the handle member, and cannot be easily reduced in thickness. Due to the above circumstances, there is the problem that the door panel member is increased in thickness, and the space inside the vehicle is decreased.
The object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle door having a structure in which the base member is fixed on the internal surface of the outer panel, and the door panel member can be formed with a small thickness.